Childhood Memory
by Laura Tear
Summary: An AU Static Quake short fic. 5 year old Daisy shows her friend a flower. Suitable for all ages. Has now been fixed so is actually readable! UPDATE: Now has extra chapter/s from Lincoln's last day of high school.
1. Chapter 1

Hi Everyone! I hope you like this little fic. I felt inspired to write a little short story of the two of them because I like them so much and I haven't yet found many Static Quake stories. It's not very long but I could be persuaded to write a follow up chapter if people are keen to hear more.

 **Follow-up note** : Has now been fixed so is actually readable!

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A five year old girl crept away from her ever watchful parents, who for once were distracted by their visitors. She giggled happily as she made her way to the backyard of the family home where her mother grew a wide array of flowers, one of which she had decided to name her daughter after - with prompting from the little girls' father.

"Daisy?" said a voice from behind her. The little girl turned, startled and guilty. Her parents didn't like her wandering away and she got in trouble sometimes, but this was not one of those times.

This time it was a boy a little older than herself. A boy with blue eyes and sandy coloured hair.

"Link!" She squealed and dashed over to grab his hand.

The boys' name was not Link, but as she was quite small and cute the older boy didn't mind.

"Have you seen my flower?" she asked him, and started trying to pull the boy to the flower bed.

"I don't want to see your flower," the boy sighed. "Your mum sent me to keep an eye on you. Can't we go back to the other kids? Its boring here."

Daisy's face fell in sadness.

"But my flower is pretty," she said, unable to understand why anyone wouldn't want to look at a pretty flower.

Lincoln, for that was the name of the boy, decided that he'd rather have to look at a flower than deal with tears.

"Alright then, but if it isn't pretty then we're going straight back to the others," he said, and allowed his friend to pull him to their destination.

It was a yellow daisy, and Lincoln supposed that it was pretty but maybe not in the same way his friend was.

"Mummy helped me plant it, and she lets me water it as well. She says that I need to look after it because otherwise it will get sick."

Lincoln nodded sagely.

"You don't want your flower getting sick," he agreed. "At school my teacher said that you have to water them, but not too much. Do you water it?" Lincoln asked.

Daisy nodded vigorously.

"They it probably wont get sick for a long time," the seven year old said.

Daisy looked relieved.

"You're very smart," she said.

Lincoln agreed that he was.

"School does that. It makes us smarter. Only big people can go."

"I can't wait to go to school. Daddy says I have to wait a little while though."

"You meet lots of people," Lincoln imparted his wisdom. "Not all of them are nice."

"You're nice!" Daisy squeaked. "I want to go to school with you."

"Maybe you will. You'll have to ask your Mum."

Daisy nodded and let Lincoln pull her away from the garden bed.

"It was a very pretty flower, but we should get back now," Lincoln led her back to the party where her small hand slipped from his bigger one and she dashed off to play with her friend Jemma.

Little did she know that one day when they were older Lincoln wouldn't let her release his hand so easily.


	2. Chapter 2

_Okay, so I decided to expand a little bit, just for the fun of it. This time around, they're both older. Lincoln is 17 which makes Daisy 15, but age doesn't matter when love is involved. *cough splutter so corny but who cares*_

 _Hope you all like! I'll post one more chapter after this._

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"Daisy, come back!" Lincoln Campbell ran after his friend as she sprinted down the school corridor.

It was his last day of school, and his best friend had been avoiding him all day. It wasn't just today either, she'd started speaking to him less the closer his graduation day came, until finally in the last week Daisy had started trying to actively avoid him.

The reason that Lincoln knew this was because twice he'd tried approaching her and she'd turned tail and ran. Lincoln couldn't help feeling that it was very 'un-Daisy-like' of her, which was pissing him off. This time around, he wasn't going to let her escape. It had been a crappy enough day as it was. His outdoor graduation ceremony had been forced to move at the last minute because of bucketing rain that had started about 4am that morning and hadn't stopped. Lincoln couldn't help but wonder if Daisy had something to do with that…Maybe and then his Dad had called saying that he couldn't make it because he was busy with work. Figured.

The ceremony had been nice enough, but when Lincoln had looked into the sea of faces expecting at least Daisy to be there for him, he didn't find her.

Now he was royally pissed. What the hell had he done? Why was she avoiding him like the plague. He'd sworn when he saw her next that he wouldn't even acknowledge her, but then as he'd turned a corner on his way to empty his locker he'd found Daisy. He only saw her face for a moment but it looked like she'd been crying. That was when she spotted him, and started running.

Lincoln initial surprise at the situation caught him unaware, which was why he was having a small amount of difficulty catching his friend. Normally they were fairly evenly matched when it came to running. Up until his family had moved to the other side of town two years ago, Daisy and Lincoln had gone jogging together most days after school, so Lincoln knew he could keep pace with her.

He lost sight of her as she rounded a corner, and when he arrived at the same spot he noticed a door swinging. It was an external door, one that led to the school garden.

Lincoln altered his course and stepped out into the rain.

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 _Who thinks they know what will happen? I sure know what I want to happen but I'm not telling you guys until next time!_

 _Bye for now,_

 _LT_


	3. Chapter 3

He looked around and found Daisy over by the flower bed.

"You're such a teenager," Lincoln said as he approached.

"Like you can talk," Daisy said bitterly. She appeared to have given up running.

"What is wrong with you? You've been acting strange all week!" Lincoln snapped, he didn't like standing in the rain, and he didn't appreciate having his friend ignore him. "Why didn't I see you at the graduation ceremony?"

"I couldn't go," Daisy said, not making eye contact.

"Like that's a good excuse, at least my Dad had the curtesy of saying that he had work."

"Your dad didn't come?" Daisy looked at Lincoln then, disgust on her face.

"You can talk."

Daisy looked away again. Her shoulders were hunched and with the pouring rain soaking her hair and then running down her cheeks it looked like she was crying. Lincoln felt himself softening a little, but he tried not to let it show.

"Why weren't you there?" Lincoln asked again, stepping closer.

Daisy didn't answer at first. It took Lincoln stepping closer once more for her to speak. Her voice was quiet, so it was a good thing that they were only a foot apart otherwise Lincoln would never have heard her.

"Because you're not going to be here for me, why should I be there for you?"

Lincoln wasn't entirely certain he knew what Daisy was talking about.

"You're going to up an leave me here!" Daisy looked at him properly now, and Lincoln was surprised to see that she was crying. He'd thought it was just the rain. Daisy never cried. He didn't think he could recall her ever crying.

"First you move away, but you said 'I'll still going to the same school so we'll see each other every day'. Now you're leaving and I wont get to see you at all! You'll go off to University and forget all about me. You'll find someone to replace me and I'll be left here alone."

Daisy's voice was raised and shaking with her tears by this point.

"Are you mad?" Lincoln asked his friend with a smile. All this time, she'd been avoiding him because of this? He'd never understand women. "No one could ever replace you. How long have we been friends? It's at least thirteen years. I won't abandon you."

"Yes you will," Daisy tried wiping her face, but in the rain it was ineffectual. "You'll get caught up in University and make new friends and have less and less time for me and then one day I'll wake up and we won't have spoken in months."

Lincoln sighed and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. He really would rather be having this conversation inside, away from the rain.

"Come here," Lincoln said and grabbed her wrist to pull her into a hug. Daisy buried her head into his chest and wrapped her arms around him. Lincoln used one arm to hold her waist and the other to stroke her back gently as he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"You realise that your logic is awful," Lincoln teased gently - all his earlier anger dissolved with the arrival of tears. "Avoiding me because you wont get to see me anymore seems pretty weird."

"I wanted to get used to not having you around," Daisy mumbled into his chest, her tears were becoming less noticeable.

"Why not do that later? When I'm not here?" Lincoln frowned and shook his head in exasperation but changed the topic before his friend could answer. "It doesn't matter anyway. I'm not going anywhere."

Lincoln tightened his arms for a moment, squeezing Daisy reassuringly.

"I promise that I'll contact you at least once a week, even if it's just a 30 second phone call to let you know that I'm safe, and you know that my parents would love to have you over for dinner more often. It's not the end of everything because I'm leaving."

Daisy shook her head, unwilling to believe him.

"Daisy, you're my best friend. I don't want to fall out of contact with you either. I'll do my best, and you do your best and I promise you that it will all work out in the end."

Lincoln kissed the top of her head, then released his grip enough to lean back and look into her eyes. He placed his hand on either side of her face to make sure that she didn't look away.

"Do you trust me?"

Daisy nodded.

Lincoln smiled and then kissed her forehead, before pulling her into a hug.

"Then come back inside with me and get out of this sodding rain. Why did you even come out here?"

"This is where the school grows the daisies."

Lincoln snorted.

"Like when we were kids?"

"Yeah."

"Come on Daisy. Take my hand," Lincoln said and Daisy slipped her smaller hand into his. He then turned and pulled her back to the door.

When they were back inside, Lincoln shook his hair a little bit like a dog would.

"Heck it's cold in here," he said noticing the temperature change.

"The air conditioning is on," Daisy said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Feeling better now?" Lincoln squeezed her hand. Daisy nodded.

"It never happened," she said firmly. Lincoln smiled, pleased that he'd been able to see a different side of the girl he cared about.

"Of course not. You never cry," Lincoln reached up and ran his thumb along the underneath of Daisy's eye to wipe away some water. "Its just the rain."

"Lets go get changed, I'm soaking," Daisy said, releasing Lincoln's hand. Lincoln wouldn't admit his disappointment to Daisy, at least not for a while. One day he'd be able to, but he didn't want say anything until they were older. Until Daisy was older.

"I've got a change of clothing, do you?" Lincoln asked as they walked towards the changing rooms.

Daisy shook her head.

"I might have a pair of gym shorts, otherwise i don't think so."

"I've got a jacket you can put on."

Lincoln waited until Daisy had located her gym shorts, then he fished his jacket out of his bag and gave it to her before going into the next room to let her change. He changed quickly out of his school uniform into his casual clothes.

Daisy slipped out of her wet clothes quickly, unwilling to catch a cold. She didn't have a towel to dry her hair but she figured it would dry soon enough. Lincoln's jacket was a little bit big, but she didn't care. In fact, she loved it. She'd never had a boyfriend, and had always been a little envious of the girls in her grade who walked around wearing their boyfriends clothing as a status symbol. Lincoln wasn't her boyfriend, but she could at least pretend - even if it wasn't true. Daisy knew that Lincoln didn't see her as anything more than a best friend or maybe a little sister, but she couldn't stop herself from caring about him. She tried to hide it, but the last few weeks had hurt her more than she thought she could bear. Talking to him had helped, had helped a lot, but not enough. Why was she younger than him? She silently cursed the misfortune that had her born two years after him. She wanted to graduate at the same time, to not be left behind.

Youth wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

One day she would be a bad-ass, a woman who was ethical, strong willed and kind but right now being a teenager took precedence.

She walked into the other change room just as Lincoln was slipping into his shirt, allowing Daisy to catch a fleeting glimpse at his chest. The one she'd just had her chest resting on. One that she wanted to see more of. She looked away before Lincoln noticed and said.

"How are you getting home?"

Lincoln glanced at Daisy as he stuffed his wet clothes into a plastic bag.

"I drove today."

Daisy nodded.

"Thanks for the loan," she smiled and gestured to the jacket. "It's much warmer wearing this than wet clothes."

"It looks better on you than it does on me," Lincoln said. Daisy grinned devilishly for a moment.

"It does, doesn't it."

Lincoln laughed. "You can keep it then, better to give it a good home."

"You don't want your jacket back?" Daisy was a little surprised. Lincoln shrugged and smiled at her.

"Fine then," Daisy smiled. "If you change your mind you can always get it back. I'll look after it."

Lincoln slung his bag on one shoulder, ready to leave and glanced at his watch.

"School's nearly over for the day. Want to come home with me? I can drop you at your place on my way home. You don't live too far away."

Daisy shook her head.

"Mum is collecting me. Thanks though."

Lincoln looked disappointed for a moment, but recovered so fast that Daisy wasn't sure what she had seen.

"You feeling better now?" Lincoln was hesitant to leave.

"I am," Daisy said nodded. She didn't especially want to break the moment either. Lincoln nodded, paused, then sighed and hitched his bag a little higher.

"Alrighty time to go then. Last day and all."

Daisy walked with him to his car, and he promised that he'd get his parents to invite her family over for dinner soon, as part of his graduation celebrations. Daisy was seized by the desire to cry once more, but this time she fought it successfully.

As Lincoln drove the car away, Daisy kicked herself for not acting on an impulse she'd had in the changing rooms - one to grab Lincoln by the collar and kiss him. Little did she know that as Lincoln drove away he was smacking the steering wheel in frustration for not doing the same thing. He knew it was better if nothing happened for the moment but that didn't mean he wanted to walk away with things left undone.

He'd have to wait a little bit longer before he acted, but for his own sake he hoped he wouldn't have to wait much longer.

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Hi Lovely Readers, don't forget to leave a review! I hope you've liked this as it is so far. All the best LT xo


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